The Arabist

By Issandr El Amrani and friends.

The BBC censors the word "Palestine"

This press release from the Palestine Campaign beggars belief...

PRESS RELEASEfor immediate release: 31st January 2012 *
*BBC Trust rules in favour of censoring ‘Palestine’
The BBC has admitted it was ‘overcautious’ in editing the word
‘Palestine’ from an artist’s performance on Radio 1Xtra and has said it is
‘looking to learn’ from the way it handled the situation.

However, in a ruling released today (31/01/12), the BBC Trust said the
final content that was broadcast on the Charlie Sloth Hip Hop M1X – a music
programme – was not biased and therefore did not breach its editorial
guidelines.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) has spent eight months trying to
find out why the decision was made to censor the lyrics of a freestyle
performance by the rapper, Mic Righteous. Appearing on the Charlie Sloth
show in February 2011, he sang: ‘I can scream Free Palestine for my
beliefs’.

BBC producers replaced the word ‘Palestine’ with the sound of breaking
glass, and the censored performance was repeated in April on the same show.

Amena Saleem, of PSC, said: ‘In its correspondence with us, the BBC said
the word Palestine isn’t offensive, but ‘implying that it is not free is
the contentious issue’, and this is why the edit was made.

‘Putting aside the BBC’s ignorance of international law, which states
unambiguously that Palestine is under occupation, we have argued that this
decision clearly shows the BBC’s bias against Palestine. Unable to counter
this point, the BBC Trust has moved the goalposts and decided to look at
the censored content that was broadcast in February and April 2011.

‘And the Trustees have decided that the content from which the word
‘Palestine’ had been edited was not biased against Palestine. This level of
manipulation and duplicity would not be out of place in Catch 22.’

Ms Saleem added: ‘It’s a great shame that, in the year of the Arab Spring
when the BBC was covering the struggle of millions of people for freedom,
it remained wedded to its institutionalised bias against the Palestinians
and refused to even recognise the fact of their occupation.’

In May 2011, 19 artists, MPs, academics and lawyers signed a letter to the
Guardian protesting at the edit as ‘an attack on the principles of free
speech’. Signatories included the director Ken Loach, and comedians Mark
Thomas, Jeremy Hardy, Mark Steel and Alexei Sayle.
Ends